I chose the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr as a temporary choice and thought that I could return it if it seemed in any way fragile. I'd read that the strings which turned the...Read complete review

I chose the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr as a temporary choice and thought that I could return it if it seemed in any way fragile. I'd read that the strings which turned the volume control were potentially problematic. Turns out that there is a six-month warranty, and even with that, the strings are obviously easy to replace with a variety of strong substitutes, if necessary. What attracted it to me initially was its easy-to-pack-up build and size. I never use the tuner output, having a tuner on my amp and a hard-to-detune Strat Ultra. Some tuners apparently affect the tone or add hiss, but I simply don't use a tuner as part of my setup. I also checked the volume of the amp with and without the pedal with my SPL: there is no measurable difference in volume. This makes sense, since the potentiometer should register zero resistance at full on. I found that the volume was a bit abrupt at lower volumes, but was more acceptable as the volume levels increased. There is a microswitch inside the pedal, however, which controls the rate of signal increase. Switching it gave a broader sweep of dynamic range which was really ideal. I use the pedal with a powerful compressor into a Peavey Vyper amp and it really does exactly what I want it to do with no batteries or wires. I don't play much metal...mostly jazz-oriented, bluesy sorts of things, so tone and exact volume are important to me. I can find no fault in this pedal the way I use it. I am not going to return it.

VS

Most Liked Negative Review

Not bad, but not great.

I'm not sure how I feel about this pedal. When I first bought it, I knew what I was going to use it for and it's quite effective in a church setting, but...Read complete review

I'm not sure how I feel about this pedal. When I first bought it, I knew what I was going to use it for and it's quite effective in a church setting, but I am not happy about the small clipping/popping sound which occurs when you use the volume pedal. Unless you know you're going to use this for a very specific purpose, it's pretty useless.

Lastly, I recommend putting this pedal after your dirtboxes. In my opinion, the roll-offs on the overdriven signal sound more natural than if you were to put it before your dirtboxes.I can't say much about the features. All it really does is decrease and increase your volume; I guess you can say that it does what it's supposed to do. I only use it for volume swells with some reverb and heavy," slow delay to get that soft-pad sound.

Another thing to note is the ""Tuner Out."" There is definitely tone-suckage when you use the tuner out", but as long as you don't use that it should be okay. Besides, most tuners are built so that you can tune your guitar quietly so that feature is useless.I was going to give this an eight, but I've discovered something new yesterday that started bothering me; when you decrease/increase the volume, there is this clipping or small popping sound which would be equivalent to engaging a pedal with a stomp. I don't really notice it during a live setting, but when I was experimenting with new sounds yesterday with the EB volume pedal, I quickly realized that this can be really annoying.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of people ran into problems with the string snapping which holds up the rotation. So far, it hasn't happened to me, but at the same time I haven't owned the pedal that long. Hopefully, it will hold up well for many months to come.I wish this pedal was less due to lack of features and issues with the clipping sound as well as the flimsy string that holds the rotary together. On the other hand, it's built well with a steel casing (I think).

I guess the third time is the charm. I tried two other optical volume pedals before purchasing this one and was completely unsatisfied with them. My primary use is volume swells and fade-ins. This pedal hits the mark on volume swells (and fade-ins)! It has a switch to go from volume swell mode or panner mode. Both have different response rates and you should try out both to see what you like. You don't need to by the active version of this unless you have active pickups (Ex- EMGs) in your guitar. I have this in my effects loop with 6 other pedals (last before my delay) and it sounds great. Where the pedal is placed in your chain can have dramatic effects, so experiment to find what sounds best to your ear. There is no hum and it doesn't need a power supply! For the price, you can't beat it.

I bought this volume pedal 6-7 years ago and it has never failed me! Are there others out there with more features? Sure. Are they worth the extra money? I don't think so. One of my complaints is that the tuner output sucks some of your tone and volume. This is easily solved with a simple mod, but it would be nice not to have to do that.

The build quality is good, and even though some people say that the string breaks frequently I haven't had that issue. I like the two options for swell rate.

Overall I'm really happy with it, and would replace with the same model if I lost it.

I bought this pedal for volume swells on lap steel/guitar and I was very pleased with the sound of it but not the design of the pedal. It think this pedal is a good example of planned obsolescence where it uses a string and spring in which breaks every few months (assuming daily use) and you have to keep coming back to them to buy the spring kit. The biggest thing for me with this pedal was playing with confidence, in which so much of playing music is about. I could not confidently play this pedal because I was always worried about the string breaking which significantly limited the use of the pedal, for example, using it to make a tremolo effect. Like I said, it does make nice swells but I absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND this pedal because there are much better volume pedals that make the same swells and you do not have to worry about breaking.

I saw this pedal used by a professional guitarist live. After visiting with him, and seeing/hearing him use it, I knew this was the one I wanted. The extra output for a tuner pedal is a wonderful addition! No more putting my tuner "in the chain" with the other pedals!

This volume pedal is hell for stout and excellent quality. It works as advertized and doesn't add any noise to the sound. I use the pedal at the front end of my chain and plug the guitar directly into it. Very smooth and responsive, all I could ask for in a volume control.

I chose the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr as a temporary choice and thought that I could return it if it seemed in any way fragile. I'd read that the strings which turned the volume control were potentially problematic. Turns out that there is a six-month warranty, and even with that, the strings are obviously easy to replace with a variety of strong substitutes, if necessary. What attracted it to me initially was its easy-to-pack-up build and size. I never use the tuner output, having a tuner on my amp and a hard-to-detune Strat Ultra. Some tuners apparently affect the tone or add hiss, but I simply don't use a tuner as part of my setup. I also checked the volume of the amp with and without the pedal with my SPL: there is no measurable difference in volume. This makes sense, since the potentiometer should register zero resistance at full on. I found that the volume was a bit abrupt at lower volumes, but was more acceptable as the volume levels increased. There is a microswitch inside the pedal, however, which controls the rate of signal increase. Switching it gave a broader sweep of dynamic range which was really ideal. I use the pedal with a powerful compressor into a Peavey Vyper amp and it really does exactly what I want it to do with no batteries or wires. I don't play much metal...mostly jazz-oriented, bluesy sorts of things, so tone and exact volume are important to me. I can find no fault in this pedal the way I use it. I am not going to return it.